I am mistaken, it would seem you have already agreed.’ Vieri met her blazing temper with cold, calculating eyes.
With the blood boiling in her veins, Harper didn’t trust herself to speak. Because he was right, of course. She had already consented to this wedding. Acknowledging her silence with a single quirk of his dark brow, Vieri pulled her closer to him, tucking her arm against the warmth of his body as he moved them on again, between the towering box topiary. Reaching a stone bench, he released her and waited for her to sit down before seating himself beside her.
‘Look, Harper, this wedding was not my idea but we can make it work.’ His voice was low, confident. ‘I know how fond you are of Alfonso. I know you would do anything to make his final weeks happy.’ She could feel him scanning her grim profile, sense how sure he was of himself. Of her. Because, of course, she would do anything for Alfonso. Including marrying this darkly dangerous man.
‘Financially I will make it worth your while,’ he continued smoothly. ‘You will be fully recompensed for your inconvenience.’
‘I don’t want your money!’ Leaping to her feet, Harper rounded on him. ‘And having to marry you is not an inconvenience. It’s a total nightmare!’
She turned away, biting down on her lip to try and stop it from trembling. That had come out all wrong, had revealed far too much. Somehow her thin veil of protection had slipped, revealing her dangerously turbulent feelings beneath.
‘Not necessarily.’ Behind her she heard Vieri get to his feet, his voice infuriatingly calm.
‘No?’ She spun around. ‘How can you say that? This whole thing has got completely out of hand. Quite apart from the marriage, you do realise that Alfonso expects us to share a bedroom while we are staying at the castello?’
‘I gathered as much.’ Vieri’s intense stare found hers, the memory of last night after the ball, of what had so nearly happened between them, shining in their deep blue depths.
‘So what exactly do you intend to do about that?’ Harper hurriedly tried to suppress the fresh flutter of panic in her chest.
Vieri’s mouth twitched before he finally spoke. ‘I will sort it out. If that’s what you want.’
‘Of course it’s what I want!’
‘Fine.’ He raised his hand dismissively, as if the matter was of no consequence, as if she was somehow being unreasonable. ‘There are more than enough rooms in this castello for us both to have our own personal space. Alfonso need never know about our sleeping arrangements.’
‘Well, see that it happens.’ She threw back her head, then had to steady herself, suddenly feeling dizzy with the madness of it all.
‘Are you okay?’ Vieri immediately noticed the pallor of her face. ‘It’s cold out here. Perhaps we should go back inside.’
‘No.’ She dug in her heels. ‘I’m going nowhere.’
‘Then let me at least warm you up.’ Suddenly he had gathered her in his arms, pulling her against the strong, muscled heat of his body.
For a second Harper let herself be held, her eyes closed in blissful surrender until the yearning for what could never be saw her struggle to release herself.
‘Actually I would like to be left on my own.’ She moved a step away and sat down heavily on the stone bench. ‘I need to think things through.’
‘As you wish.’ But he sat down beside her again. What part of alone did he not understand? Several highly charged seconds of silence rolled by.
‘Harper?’ He rested his hand on her thigh, the heat of his palm branding her skin through the fabric of her dress.
‘What?’ She deliberately moved to dislodge his hand.
‘I do understand that this is a big thing I am asking of you.’ He closed the gap between them until his thigh was pressed against hers. She could feel the warmth radiating off him, see his soft breath in the air. ‘But it doesn’t have to be such an ordeal. Alfonso knows that we are only getting married so quickly for his benefit, so he will understand if it’s a very private affair.’
‘But we will still be married in the eyes of the law.’
‘Yes, this is true. But when Alfonso...when the time comes, the marriage can be annulled.’
He had thought this all through, hadn’t he? And for some reason, that only made his calculated deceit, both to his godfather and to her, seem even worse.
‘However, if you decide that you can’t go through with it, then I will respect that decision. I will go in there and tell Alfonso the truth, this afternoon, as soon as he awakes from his nap. You will be free to go. You need never see him again.’
Harper felt her heart plummet. The thought of not even saying goodbye to Alfonso was unthinkable. But then so was the idea of confessing that they had lied to him, that the whole engagement was a sham. He would be so disappointed. No, more than that, he would be devastated. Harper knew she could never do that to him.
She dragged in a breath of cold air to steady herself.
‘Okay, I will do it.’ She forced herself to meet Vieri’s midnight stare. ‘For Alfonso’s sake, because I can’t bear to think of him upset, I will agree to marry you.’
‘Thank you.’ Taking hold of her hand, Vieri squeezed her cold fingers in his firm, warm grasp. ‘I do appreciate it.’ He rose to his feet, dropping her hand but still holding her eyes. ‘I will see to the arrangements right away.’
He turned, his job obviously done, and began to stride purposefully back towards the castello.
Harper watched his retreating figure, so tall and imposing. So unmistakeably Vieri. This impossible, arrogant, gloriously perfect specimen of manhood who had turned her life upside down. Who drove her completely crazy in every possible way. And from whom, no matter how short their so-called marriage might be, whatever might happen in the future, she feared she would never fully recover.
THE NEXT TWO weeks passed in a dizzying daze. Preparations for the wedding were rapidly organised, Vieri taking charge, the way he always did. And even though he did consult her, asking her opinion over some of the details, the flowers for the chapel, the food for the wedding breakfast, Harper didn’t have the heart to get involved. So in the end she left it all to him.
A small guest list was drawn up, mostly comprising a few of Alfonso’s trusted colleagues associated with his charities and a handful of old friends. ‘There are so few of us left,’ he had mournfully stated as he had turned the pages of his address book. ‘That’s what comes of being so ancient.’
Vieri had only invited one guest, a Sicilian friend called Jaco Valentino, someone he had known since childhood, apparently. Even that had been Alfonso’s doing, casually mentioning that it would be nice to see Jaco again and why didn’t Vieri see if he was free that day. Vieri had been left with no option but to agree.
Harper, herself, had no intention of inviting anybody, despite Alfonso’s
